Kawakami: Oakland's teams stuck at Coliseum complex

The Raiders are not close to a stadium deal in Oakland, and they're getting antsier every day, though some things do help lift the spirits.

Such as: news that there are movements to try to lure the Raiders to Portland, Ore., and Oklahoma City.

"Good to know people want us, right?" Raiders owner Mark Davis said with a chuckle during a phone interview Friday.

Davis quickly added that he first and foremost wants a new stadium on the Coliseum site and that he is not starting talks with other cities.

"No, no, no, no, no -- really, I'm working on this Oakland thing," Davis said. "Then if this doesn't happen, I've got to think about Plan B. Plan A is Oakland."

But generally, Davis' frustrations in some ways mirror the feelings of the Warriors owners, who aren't close to their announced new arena in San Francisco, which is mired in bureaucratic muck and might just be impossible to pull off.

And you can naturally add in the A's owners, who are not at all close to their San Jose dreams.

All three franchises are playing at the outdated Coliseum complex; all three are aiming for something new; and all three are in varying stages limbo and distress.

And maybe most frustratingly of all, each team in some way is tied to the other: Should Oakland's massive Coliseum City project/pie-in-the-sky idea be scaled to fit buildings for all three teams, two teams, or just one team, and what are the deadlines and financial parameters for each of those decisions?

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Who knows?

"It's all moving, but it's not moving real fast," Davis said, "and I don't know whether it's moving fully in the right direction."

Davis said he had lunch with Oakland Mayor Jean Quan last week and that she suggested they could have a Coliseum City deal framework by the summer.

But Davis noted that Quan previously had pointed to a deal by the end of last season, "and that came and went," Davis said dryly.

Let's take a spin through all three situations, as they stand right now ...

Davis is the only Oakland owner who is clear and pronounced about his desire to stay.

But now he's on the shortest true timeline because he signed only a one-year extension with the Coliseum through 2014.

Looming beyond that: The return-to-Los Angeles option or Davis could just open bidding to whoever is interested, though each possibility would create many of its own problems.

"I'm not using Oakland as some type of negotiating thing, and I'm not using other cities as leverage," Davis said.

"If Oakland can get this done, I'm staying in Oakland. If we can't and I see we can't, then I'll start to negotiate with other people. And if they can do it, then I'll do it.

"I'm not at that stage yet; I'm very close to it."

Of this group of teams, the Warriors have the best current setup and are the likeliest to remain relatively at peace and in place for five or even 10 more years.

First, co-owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber have recently confirmed that they've had to push back their San Francisco planned opening from 2017 to 2018 at the earliest.

They're still hoping to build on the splashy Pier 30/32 site.

But Lacob and Guber also have acknowledged that they are looking at alternative sites, including Lot A adjacent to the Giants' AT&T Park. Of course, merely restarting talks there would take a major thaw in Giants-Warriors relations.

The reality is that, because they're going to miss the 2017 date, the Warriors will have to exercise their extension clause with the Coliseum to play there into the 2017-2018 season.

And that probably means they'll be at Oracle Arena for several years after that, too.

My understanding is that Lacob and Guber are ready to pour more money into Oracle Arena upgrades as they prepare for a minimum of four more seasons in the East Bay ... and possibly all the way into the 2020s.

A's owners John Fisher and Lew Wolff complain the most of the Oakland teams, seem to have the fewest options, and yet have the largest annual profit, thanks to baseball's revenue-sharing program.

They're also the wackiest of this group.

Wolff confirmed to this newspaper that the A's would be open to the possibility of building an "interim place to play" if negotiations to extend their lease with the Coliseum go badly.

The only reasonable response to that trial balloon: Can you imagine playoff games at 15,000-seat Rinky-Dink Metro Stadium in Milpitas?

Meanwhile, I continue to hear that the A's quest to move to San Jose is nearly without hope at this point.

The A's are stuck, in a different way from how the Warriors and Raiders are stuck.

But you look at all three and you don't really see large reasons to believe they're getting unstuck anytime soon.